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The infrastructure unit of buyout group AXA Private Equity has bought the French wind assets of Babcock & Brown, as the troubled Australian group strives to offload assets and pay down debt.

AXA Private Equity acquired holding company Kallista Energies Renouvelables, which manages the portfolio of 15 wind farms in France. The firm did not disclose the purchase price but sources close to the situation said it paid about €220m ($315m) for the assets.

Australian bank Babcock & Brown is in administration, although its subsidiary Babcock & Brown International Group, the main operating and asset owning entity in the group, continues to operate. BBIG has been selling assets in a bid to pay down debt. Babcock could not be reached for comment.

In October, BBIG sold a portfolio of Portuguese wind assets to local buyout group Magnum Capital Industrial Partners for €1.2bn in the country’s biggest ever buyout. BBIG said in a statement earlier this year that the programme of asset disposals would take two to three years.

AXA will manage the wind farms through its own holding company, Holding Energies Renouvelables, which it will use to make further investments it said in a statement.

The deal follows AXA’s acquisition of renewable assets in Italy earlier this year.

Mathias Burghardt, head of infrastructure at AXA Private Equity, said: “We are continuing to take advantage of the favourable investment conditions which prevail in the infrastructure market. This transaction is part of a strategy to build a portfolio of diversified assets in order to become a major player in the European renewable energy sector.”

AXA brought in French water services group SAUR as a co-investor on the deal to provide additional expertise.